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My kids went back to school this week and today I want to share our kids’ homework are with you. It’s not an overly complicated space. It’s pretty simple and straight forward. We don’t homeschool so it’s really just a functional space for them to use to work on homework or any coloring they want to do. But it’s a little space that I’m proud of and this year I made it a little more fun with a DIY pencil banner I’ll share with you below.
Figuring out the space
When we bought the farmhouse there was a kind of this weird space between the original part of the farmhouse and the new part of the farmhouse. On one side is my office, the bathroom and a doorway to the mud room. On the other side are the stairs to the basement, the family room and the kitchen. And at first I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.
However, the previous owners had a small sofa table in the space and when I saw that, it looked just like a desk. And thats’s kind of how this random spot in the middle of the house became our homework area.
Making the homework area work
Our kids go to public school and we don’t home school so we didn’t need a huge space for the homework area. We also don’t need a ton of storage for curriculum and extra materials that might clutter it up. I really just needed a straight forward space and I loved that this spot was a place I could be close to them when I’m working in the kitchen.
We purchased the sofa table from the previous owners and since our kids are both, well, small kids, they fit at this one “desk” well. I bought two cream metal chairs to lighten up the space up from Target. They don’t seem to have them anymore but I found the exact same chairs in white {HERE}. Then I gave each materials they would need to color or do any homework.
Since I wanted to keep the overall homework area simple and functional I purchased two metal baskets {HERE} – one for each of them – to attach to the wall. Inside the baskets I added simple mason jars to hold their supplies and age appropriate materials for their space. My daughter has mechanical pencils, which she loves, pens, colored pencils and markers. My son has No. 2 pencils, thick markers, crayons and pencil grips to help support his grip.
I recently added a folder box for each of them to hold important papers and notes from teachers. I also added leather blotter mats to make writing and coloring easier since the desk has a crack between the two planks.
Saving important papers
For a long time in the homework area we had a chalkboard on the wall and it was cute, but it just didn’t work for us. There was really no purpose for it. I couldn’t attach notes to it and the kids couldn’t reach it to use it. I switched it out for this cork board {HERE} last year. This works so much better for us. I can pin notes about field trips, library books and fundraisers here so it is much more functional than the chalkboard ever was.
Pencil Banner DIY (Free PDF and Link to Cricut Files)
This year I added the cute pencil banner to the homework area space to make it a little more festive. I made this on my Cricut and you can find all the pieces for it here:
And you can find a PDF for the Pencil Banner here: Pencil PDF
If you use the PDF it will be a slightly different size than the Cricut file because Cricut makes it impossible to save the design in ways that work for other programs. I built this one in Canva and you can still use different colored paper to print each piece. Just make sure you’re using a 12×12 card stock on your printer. Then use scissors to cut it out.
To connect all the pieces, I simply used Elmer’s glue. You can see how I did it in the video above. Also, when gluing on the pencil led, make sure to put the glue on the YELLOW body of the pencil. The led is slightly longer and will get glue on your work surface if you apply the glue to that piece.
Our WOW wall
Across from the homework desk I added a space last year that I call the WOW wall. I’m not a fan of having things on the fridge so this wall acts as a place where they can put papers with good grades and art projects they’ve worked on. I used two photo hangers from IKEA to make it and want to try to paint those later this year. I previously used that rub and nuff stuff all other bloggers were loving and I hated it. It’s didn’t work well at all on this metal.
However, the photo hanger worked exactly like I wanted it to. It was easy to hang and easy to switch out the artwork using clips.
So that is our space in the homework area. What do you think of the space? Do you have a homework space in your house?
Thank you so much for visiting today, friends! I hope that you love this homework area space and it inspires you to use simple spots in your home as solutions for your family. For more farmhouse decor, click {HERE} and for more handmade projects, click {HERE}.
What a great use of space! It is nice to have a dedicated homework space to focus on what needs to get done.
It is. Thank you.
You’ve lost weight and look great!!!!
The school area is nice. My favorite thing are those baskets. Love them
I have! Thank you!
This homework area is perfect, I did something similar in my home last year.
Not having my son at home anymore, I no longer have to worry about homework. Whew!!! I love that banner, though, that’s adorable!! I might make one of those for a teacher friend. 🙂
The banner is too cute. I love the homework area as well!
Wow! That homework area looks really cute specially that banner!
That is so cute and amazing! I think I need to make a homework area for my kids too!
Wow! That homework area looks really cute specially that banner!
wow! Love this homework area! It’s so organized and clean!
The pencil banner looks like a cute little craft for the study!
What a cute space for homework, I agree we all need a space for tasks. Adults have offices why have a study zone for kids.
The pencil banner looks very cute and neat. I would love to try it out with my daughter.
This is such a cute learning space for children!
The pencil banner turned out so nice. This would look cute in my granddaughter’s classroom!
So cute! I just want to come to your house and look around! Everything you do is perfection!
The pencil banner is really cute! <3 The nook is really neat! I also use an ikea skadis wall organizer because we love to craft.
I need to get rid of some things in my living room so that I can make a homework station for my son. I love the space that you used.